Henry Louis Mencken
Libertarian Before His Time
Henry Lewis Mencken might have been considered a libertarian today because his targets ranged from Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New deal to social reformers of any type.
Personal Life of H.L. Mencken
H.L. Mencken was born on September 12, 1880 in Baltimore, Maryland to August Mencken, a cigar factory owner. Little is know about his early childhood except that he was privately tutored at home and graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at age sixteen. He worked in his father's cigar factory from 1892 to 1899 and was expected to enter the business. However, when his father died in 1899, he was freed of that obligation.
In 1930, he married Sara Haardt, a professor of English at Goucher College in Baltimore and an author, who was 18 years younger than Mencken. The two met in 1923 after he delivered a lecture at the College although they did not marry until seven years later. Sara was in poor health from tuberculosis throughout their marriage and died in 1935 of meningitis. Mencken was said to be grief-stricken after her death.
Writing Life of H.L. Menchen
After his father's death, Mencken became a reporter or editor at several Baltimore newspapers, including the Baltimore Morning Herald. Later he moved to the Baltimore Sun where he remained for most of his adult life. Mencken was a war correspondent during World War I in Germany and Russia from 1916 to 1918.
Mencken was not only a newspaper writer, he was a man of extraordinary talents. He also co-edited with drama critic George Jean Nathan on The Smart Set. He and Nathan founded Parisienne, Saucy Stories and Black Mask pulp magazines in the late 1910's. He also co-founded and edited American Mercury. In addition, he was a literary adviser at Knopf publishers.
From the mid 1920's on, he became one of the sharpest critics of public men as his work became increasingly political. In his essays, he went after all aspects of American life. Among them were criticism of immigrant ethnic groups, the influence of the British, mocked American education and literature.
Among the political figures he criticized were Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. During the Great Depression, he did not support Franklin D. Roosevelt nor America's participation in World War II. He retired from the Sun temporarily focusing on his memoirs and other projects as an editor. However, he returned to the political scene when Harry S. Truman was running for U.S. President against Republican Thomas Dewey and Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive Party.
Mencken Legacy
H.L. Mencken's legacy is as a book reviewer, literary critic, humorous journalist, and essayist who wrote with a comic skepticism about the human condition. There are estimates that he wrote over 3,000 newspaper columns.
Mencken died on January 29, 1956 and was buried in Baltimore's Loudon Park Cemetery. His epitaph is taken from the Smart Set, something he himself had written.
"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl."
Source:
Teachout, Terry. The Skeptic: A Life of H.L.Mencken. NY: HarperCollins 2002
H.L.Mencken
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